Just a thought… Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

In these waning days of summer, a few thoughts as we head into pumpkin-everything season.

First off, make your own pumpkin spice coffee at home and save hugely. If sugar is not your thing, stores like Winners and HomeSense carry syrups that are zero calorie. I just love them once in a while in my coffee, while the fruity ones are great paired with soda. Often on sale, they’re a lovely replacement for alcohol in the evening.

Speaking of alcohol, it was at a certain meeting that I attended on Thursday last week that I brought up the topic of “patience.” The lesson here is one that I’ve always had trouble learning; from waiting for Rob to propose for the second time (after he’d given me a ring three weeks after our first date and then gotten cold feet) to biding my time to get respect at the radio station I called home for most of my career. Both came the way I hoped, but not as fast as I’d have liked. I wish I could say LESSON LEARNED! Then wiped my hands and moved on to other tenets of peaceful living.

So it seems our house, which has been on the market since May of last year, has finally sold. After much backing-and-forthing, bending and capitulating, we’ve gotten well below what we’d hoped for, but about what I guess one can expect in such a slow market in our price range. There was one previous offer which was so low that we basically signed it back with a number that equalled an eye-roll. The old real estate saw is that “your first offer is most often your best” but we put that saying aside and went with our guts. The second offer wasn’t perfect, but we just can’t with the bridge financing, the ups and downs and the mental toll that having a place on the market takes.

And so, before I head off to Mexico for a few months in November, we will have said good-bye to what we (once again) thought was our “forever home.” Just as we thought with the house we built from the ground up in Jackson’s Point, just north of Toronto, we could have gone out with toe tags on. But as in the case of losing Lauren and having dreams up-ended, the emotional weight this time of not having our boisterous grandkids bounding about was too much to carry. So we did what we do: we left.

We found a condo perfect for us and moved into slowly-bustling Sidney-by-the-Sea. Except for them flying the US flag this summer, it’s been just perfect, and but for the timing on the house sale, a solid decision.

So now we move on – both literally and figuratively.

Have I learned my lesson about patience? I’d like to say I have. I’m coming to the realization that my media career is ending: the speaking demand – via video and in person – has dwindled to nothing (which I expected) and I’m digging deep to find a purpose in this new chapter in my life. A suggestion that I run for MP here was one Rob and I wisely eschewed (given that Elizabeth May was a shoo-in) and I haven’t another book in me, I don’t think.

I look to my Gracefully and Frankly podcast partner Lisa Brandt for inspiration: while continuing her voicing and editing work, she’s about to self-publish the third in a fiction trilogy (find out more at the same website). She is doing morning news from her home studio for two FM radio stations in Ontario, and keeps her other hours filled with crafting, creating and coming up with new ideas for our G&F merchandising.

I’m grateful Rob and I will be spending three nights with her and Derek in October and hope some of her magic rubs off on me. After all, whenever I’m with her she gets a new voice job, so, Lisa: I’m counting on you to return the favour!

Have a lovely week and enjoy these days of changing colours, gentle temperatures and red hot baseball. We sure are.